The last two weeks in the life of me...

For those of you that don't know my life is divided nicely into two (usually) equal halves. I manage to keep a fairly good balance between my training and going to school for physical education. Sometimes my two lives do spill into each-other and the halves become slightly less than equal....

Usually my priorities tend to shift more to the side of my training, which often forces me spend unreasonable amounts of time in the library every few weeks. These past weeks, though, the balance has been heavily weighed on the school side.

The last two years of teachers college are spent taking teaching methods classes and spending time in schools getting practice teaching (practicums). We start with two weeks, and then do four months before we get certified. My first practicum was at St. Michaels University school. I spent the last two weeks observing classes and I had the opportunity to teach both science and PE (my two teaching areas). It was defiantly hard balancing training with full time work. Lots of early mornings and late nights, made for a very tired Tyler.

I was happy to discover that that I really enjoy teaching though, I was especially surprised by how much I enjoyed teaching science. Being in the classroom was a new experience for me, very different from teaching PE.

I find a lot of parallels between my life in triathlon and my life at school. Both the Tri community and the PE department at UVic are small worlds, where everyone knows each-other. One of the best parts about being part of a small training unit is that you can all help each other through difficult times and share in everyones success (read the same for school)!

I am happy to report that all my friends (and I) passed our practicums with flying colors, and as far as I have heard, enjoyed their time in the classroom as much as I did!

Congratulations to all my friends who completed their practicums this year, both their two week and their four month!

Now I am excited to get started on the summer, focus on training and make some big gains! Lots of hard work and big races coming up, can't wait!

Best wishes!